Monday, October 24, 2011

I think you can see why we've had a nerve-wracking transition back to America. Andrew did a great job studying, and now we're just waiting for his LSAT score. We also went and talked to representatives from our top ten law schools last week, and I feel really good about our options! I'm excited to start planning for where we will be next year.

Monday, September 5, 2011

This is the last Thailand post. We just wanted to share a few last photos of the people we will miss the most:

1. Prawech and his wife. They have been involved with the BYU program for years, and they made us feel so at home when we first got to Thailand. We had a great goodbye dinner with them a few weeks ago.

2. Mae Nontakorn: Andrew's mission "mom" treated us SO well when we went to Bangkok. We love her so much.

3. Manop and Anna: My bosses at work. They are such great examples of hard work and humility. Anna fed me every day and taught me so much during the summer.

4. Tee and Ian! Our travel agents all summer. Also our best friends. Also our favorite cooks. We couldn't have done this summer without them.

Ok, that's it. It's really over. 2nd week of school for Andrew, and last week of second vacation for me! Life goes on, but we are so much better after this summer in Thailand, and I'm so grateful for that!

Andrew's mom, Jody, and her husband Bill came to Thailand to help ease the pain of saying goodbye. We embarked on quite the vacation together!

Our adventures started in Chiang Mai. We finally went to the elephant camp I've been wanting to go to all summer. It was fabulous. Those elephants are just SO smart.

We did another cooking class, zipped around town in songtaews, tuk-tuks, and motorcys, flew through the jungle on ziplines, and played with snakes (AGAIN).

And we had a GREAT time! The picture of Andrew pointing at the blue board shows a picture of him at the same snake farm earlier this summer! He asked if he could get in for free since they were using his photo for advertising, and they said next time. Really?

Next we headed to Luang Prabang, a French-influenced Laotian city. It was like stepping back in time 100 years. We had such a great time relaxing and wandering around the city.

And then we went back to my favorite spot: Phi Phi Island. We took far fewer photos this time so we could enjoy the moment.

We are so glad Jody and Bill were able to come and see this place we love so much! We had a great time with them, and we were able to say goodbye to ALL of Thailand!

Our last trip with the students involved renewing our visas in Myanmar. We turned it into a weekend trip and stopped at some sights along the way.

First was the White Temple:

Andrew thought that was the best no-smoking sign he had ever seen. The White Temple is relatively new. It has a large mural inside depicting Heaven and Hell. The mural features some familiar characters: you'll see Spiderman, Kung Fu Panda, Star Trek characters, Transformers, etc. We aren't too sure why they are there--surely enjoying Kung Fu Panda can't mean you're going to hell. Right?!

We also visited a geyser in the middle of a parking lot.

...Where we find this giant. (Becca stepped on it accidentally a few moments later. I thought for sure it was big enough to see, but I guess not!)

So we did.

After a brief shopping stint in Myanmar, we enjoyed a nice, expensive, unsatisfying breakfast on the river. But at least we got a cool group shot.

Then we floated along the Golden Triangle to a little island in Laos.

The Golden Triangle is at the intersection of Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, at the most northern point of Thailand.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

So, it's kind of today...but first we fly back to CM, then to Korea, then to Japan, then America, then home. Maybe in two days we'll be home? Or three? But we've definitely started our journey home already. We've had a great time with Andrew's mom, and now our bags are packed and we're ready to go. I have a few more weekend trips and adventures to blog about, but we've had tricky internet situations the last week, so I haven't even attempted to get caught up.

Monday, August 15, 2011

"If you give a mouse a crumb, uh, he will beat you up in an alley."
Translation: If you give a mouse a cookie...
Best Part: The mice (or rats) here are really big enough that they COULD beat you up in an alley. Andrew's mom saw one today!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

I can't wait to let my hair go free when we get home. It's getting pretty crazy. Also, the new conditioner I bought here is sticky, so that can't be helping matters.

Our second to last weekend together was spent at a boat house on a lake. In Thai, it turns out "boat house" just means "floating house." Thailand always surprises me. Like, when we visited this waterfall:

Nang (remember him from the trek?) told me I could climb the waterfall. Yeah, right, that thing's wet. I was wrong! You can climb up the waterfall. The rocks were almost sticky even! I loved it.

We only got mostly wet. Our camera survived, which was good.

This is us looking down from the top of the waterfall. Such a beautiful spot!

We needed more group photos, so we took a few.

This is us playing "never have I ever" in the lake at night. We look like we just floated the whole time, but actually, we played tons of fun games. The best was nighttime spoons. We put glowsticks in water bottles and threw them in the lake. Then the first person to get four of a kind in cards grabbed the bottle in the middle, and the rest of us had to jump in the lake and grab a bottle. The last person didn't get a bottle, so they were out. It was all fun and games. Also, someone got hurt. But she's ok now.

This is the view from our little inlet. It was a gorgeous lake. All of those houses are like the one we stayed in.

It was another successful weekend with some really awesome people. We got to relax a bit and catch up on our reading for school :)

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

*For Andrew and Laura combined; when colors disappear from chart, that means that pillow died along the way. As in, we lost it.

That one was a little complicated. In sum, we have no more neck pillows, and plenty of traveling left.

We had to renew our visas a few weeks ago, so we set up a trip to Laos via Udon, a city where one of Andrew's best mission buddies lives. Wongsagorn and his wife tagged along with us to the Laotian capital, and we had a blast together. I was so glad to finally meet this mission friend Andrew loves so much. He is the branch president of the little LDS congregation on the border, a tough job that he performs very well! It was great to spend time with them, and we are already planning their trip to visit us in America!

We went to a beautiful statue garden. Each statue represented a story from Buddhism teachings. I was so impressed--"How old is this place?!" I asked. Wongsagorn said it was nearly 25 years old. Oh. Cool, I guess.

We got to eat at an Indian restaurant Andrew frequented on his mission. Ali, the owner, moved his restaurant to Udon recently. Andrew: "Do you remember me?" Ali: "Sure, why not?" He was a funny guy, and his food was delicious.

Andrew and Wongsagorn on an abandoned ship. They had fun playing together on the trip.

Walking on the friendship bridge between Thailand and Laos. We could only walk halfway, but we drove across the next day.

We went out for Vietnamese food on the border. Really good. These two are besties.

Dinner was right on the river, and we got to watch the sunset. Of course pictures don't do it justice, but I wanted to remember that we got to see it in real life!

A temple in Vientiane. It was really really hot in Vientiane. We rode bikes around the city, which made transportation easier and comfort nil.

There were some kittens inside one temple, and Wongsagorn started meowing. He was really good at it. All the kittens ran to him, more came out from behind chairs and pillars, and they followed him around everywhere! So funny!

Of course we had to get Swensen's ice cream together.

Here's all four of us. Wongsagorn's wife was really nice, and I could tell we would be friends if either of us spoke the other's language.

We also got to visit the LDS church in Vientiane! It's a converted French house in the city. Beautiful. The church isn't officially recognized in Laos, and the government doesn't allow the name of the church to be on the building, so it is called Deseret International Charities. We got to speak to the branch president there, and he showed us around the whole building. I loved this part of our trip!

This is us and Tippetok, our guide (also a mission buddy of Andrew's), on the lawn of the church.

View from Victory Monument, a mediocre replica of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It is unfinished and made of concrete.

Laotian Pepsi.

All four of us in front of Victory Monument.

Saying goodbye at the bus station! We had such a great trip. And we got our visas and got back across the border safely!